Report claims crisis cost bank up to €6.3bn

Unwinding the positions built up by Jérôme Kerviel cost SocGen a total of €6.3bn (£4.7bn) and not the €4.9bn disclosed by the bank, the French daily Le Monde has reported.

The bank's figure took account of a €1.4bn profit Kerviel made at the end of last year and tried to conceal because it would have exposed his operations, an unnamed source from SocGen's middle and back office involved in coordinating the crisis response told the paper.

Kerviel was in the smart Normandy seaside resort of Deauville on Saturday January 19 when bank officials tried to contact him about the discovery of a fictitious transaction of €30bn. He texted back simply: "I can't reply. I have no mobile phone coverage."

When he finally spoke to his bosses by phone, he allegedly admitted to inventing a fictitious position but said he had done so to hide the €1.4bn he had made in 2007. "I wanted it to be a surprise for you," he told his employers, according to the paper.

The eight-member team of traders that Kerviel belonged to had a trading limit of €125m. At the time of the discovery of his fictitious accounts, Kerviel was about to receive "the nicest trader" award voted for by back-office staff - and hoped for a €600,000 bonus.

The source said Kerviel often won sympathy from colleagues. He wore a black suit to mourn his father for a year after his death. When he refused to go on holiday in December 2007, he said it was because it was the anniversary of his father's death.